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It took a bit more time than many anticipated, but the day has finally arrived: The Nissan Altima is dead. The news was confirmed by the company’s Senior VP and Chief Product & Planning Officer for the Americas, Ponz Pandikuthira, who added that the Rogue Plug-In Hybrid, a badge-engineered Mitsubishi Outlander that was always intended to be a stop-gap product, is also departing after just a single model year.
We first heard whispers of the Altima’s demise in 2024, when reports gave the midsize sedan a two-year prognosis. Well, it’s been two years, and here we are. The Altima always had a reputation for being a chaotic force on American roads, but it’s easy to gloss over the fact that it used to be ubiquitous, especially through the ’90s and early aughts, when Nissan was undergoing something of a design renaissance.
But the Altima couldn’t keep up with the rest of the family sedan pack. It’s been eight years since its last redesign. For 2025, it lost its variable-compression turbocharged powertrain, and now, we’re losing it altogether. Pandikuthira told Wards Auto that the company wants to focus on the new Sentra, which he describes as more “grown up.”
Through 2026 to date, Altima sales are down 32%, from 62,107 units to 42,288, while the Sentra has seen a lesser dive of almost 12%, from 85,523 to 75,549.
We’ll never forget you, Nissan Altima SE-R. Nissan
This news shouldn’t be taken as meaning that Nissan echoes Detroit’s total disinterest in sedans, as it turns out the company did aim to replace the Altima and the Maxima (which left us in 2023) with electric cars. Unsurprisingly, stagnation in the market has pushed off those plans for the moment.
“We had planned two EV sedans for the space occupied by Altima and Maxima, but EV volume hasn’t taken off yet,” Pandikuthira told Wards. “It may be closer to 2029 or 2030 before we see a resurgence in that segment.”
As for the Rogue PHEV, Nissan was very clear at the outset that that vehicle was always intended to live a short life, to buy it some time to get its first homegrown hybrid, the Rogue E-Power, into showrooms. “If people shopping online see that Rogue does not offer a hybrid, they will not go to the dealer,” Pandikuthira said. Mitsubishi came in for the assist, and with the plug-in SUV having served its duty, it’s now being phased out.
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Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
